7 (yummy) meal ideas for your Christmas leftovers

Every once in a while a person has to indulge themselves and the holiday season is the best time to do that.

I don’t know if it’s the same in every household but we normally go all out with a few different types of meat like gammon, roast beef, roast chicken and leg of lamb, and then we end up with enough meat till New Year. And then there’s the salads: potato salad, pasta salad, banana salad (tip for your next banana salad is to add a small amount of strawberry yoghurt, and thank me later) and your typical Greek salad.

It’s no wonder there are always leftovers and it can get a little boring eating the same thing for a few days in a row.

We’ve got you covered. Here’s a list of easy and quick ideas you can make with your leftover holiday food:

1 Sandwiches

This one is very versatile; you can use any bread you like (white, brown or rye) or even French loaf and make open sandwiches. Once you’ve decided what bread to use the rest is up to personal taste: If you’re using gammon you can add some rocket, cherry tomatoes, some salt and pepper, and enjoy.

2 Salads

You can make a nice salad using some of the meat you have left and even the salads: Using potato salad and the roast chicken, you can shred the chicken and mix it into the potato salad and there you go, a meal for the next day. You can do the same with your leftover pasta salad by mixing in whatever meat you have left.

3 Pies

Buy some ready rolled puff pastry, make a nice thick meaty sauce and mix it in with your chosen meat; add some vegetables like potato and carrots or anything you like. Cut out the size that you want your pies to be and place your filling inside, egg wash and bake until golden brown.

4 Breakfast

This one is very easy you can prepare your normal breakfast toast, eggs, grilled mushrooms, tomatoes and then just add whatever meat you have left.

5 Baked potatoes

A baked potato is really a meal on its own. You can fill it with absolutely anything you want: a simple version is meat with cheese or you can make a nice mushroom sauce with cheese and meat.

6 Stir fry

Using some noodles and some vegetables with soy sauce you can make a nice stir fry. You can use chicken, pork or roast beef with this one.

7 Mini pizzas

You can buy mini tomato pizza bases from any grocery store or if you have time you can make your own pizza bases. But being the holiday season I would go out and buy some. The toppings are easy so you can cut the meat in small pieces, grate some cheese, cut up some green peppers, mushrooms anything you like, even olives (I won’t be putting that on my pizza). This can be fun to do with the kids the day after Christmas – let them make their own special pizza.

So now you don’t need to eat the same breakfast, lunch and supper for nights in a row, and you won’t end up wasting most of the food that you worked so hard to prepare.